Reddit mentions of NOCO Genius G3500 6V/12V 3.5 Amp Battery Charger and Maintainer

Personally for local or camping (not air travel) I like the 35-55 AH AGM SLA scooter batteries. (SLA = sealed lead acid aka non-spillable) If you turn of heated hose & humidification (passover humidification is okay) they will last a few nights. See the ResMed battery guide for more detailed run estimates at https://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/articles/198103_battery-guide_glo_eng.pdf.

Basic list of parts you need:

• Battery https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8E0WAG
  
• Battery box https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WCUIC4 (optional but nice to have)
  
• eyelet terminal cigarette adapter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8WLW2Y (optional for ResMed)
  
• battery charger https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LWVEKS or similar
  
  Depending on which CPAP machine you have:
  
  
• ResMed DC adapter https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed-dc-converter-airsense-aircurve-10-machines
  
• Philips DC adapter https://www.cpap.com/productpage/pr-dreamstation-shielded-dc-cord
  
  Edit: the cigarette adapter is only optional for ResMed since it comes with a clamp adapter - Philips does not. I'd still get one though since it can bolt to the battery terminals.

It's an ideal use of a Leaf. Your only issue is the little 12v battery won't get charged in short trips.

Either use the windshield wipers on every trip (the leaf charges the 12v faster when the wipers are on and for 2 mins afterwards) or buy an external charger like https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B004LWVEKS and charge the 12v every month or two.

Really you can drive it and not worry but if you want to be preventative so you don't have to deal with a dead 12v someday by surprise you can do so.

Note this isn't true just for the Leaf, it'd be the same for any car you drive on that short of a trip.

I have this one that I'm happy with.

It'll do moto and car batteries and has an "exercise" type mode that will drain a battery and recharge it a couple of times to try to loosen up some of the "stuck" material that causes a battery to go dead.

Maine here. A good AGM battery and a smart charger if you're getting some extreme temps in the winter. My batteries are a few years old but they are still 13v and hold a charge like they are brand new. By no means do you have to charge the battery when you're not using it, as AGM's are much more resistant to the cold, but it's not a bad idea to charge it over the weekends.

Awesome Thx... I'll try that. Few questions

1. I hear watering dead batteries can lead to over fill, how should I caution against this?
   
2. Since these are 6 x 6 volt batteries... how should I charge them? Should I just pair them up and charge with my car jumper, or buy a 6v charger like this (or is there a better option)?

>Anything under 12.0V and it is likely too low to get the engine started.

Interesting, I can go and check it with my multimeter. Thanks for the advice, I'm not sure why I didn't think of that, it is a battery after all.


In my original post, I stated that I would be buying this charger.

I am getting the 3.5 amp version.

Do you think this charger will be able to bring the voltage back up to above 12V? I could charge up most of the battery with this charger slowly and then maintain it with the alternator by running the car for a half hour or so every week or two? Or I could just connect the charger every week and top the battery off.

Only problem is that some people on Amazon are saying that this charger actually requires a tiny bit of power in the battery in order to diagnose it correctly so it can send the proper current. I never thought leaving the battery for 1-2 months would drain it so fast!

This one on amazon

Your solar panel produces DC energy while a charging station offers AC energy for a different type of charging system.

You could bypass everything and use a conventional battery charger. What type of battery(s) are you charging?

Power / Inverter Question:

With out going into too much detail, let's just say my rig will be connected to shore power on most excursions, call me a weekend warrior.

Somewhere down the road I will probably add Solar but that is not within the next 1-2 years.

When connected to shore power my LED lights would still be on 12v power. So here we go...

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1. If I am on shore power I can get an all in one inverter / charger to keep power to my batteries and my LED lights. Could I go even cheaper and just have my 12v batteries topped off by a battery charger such as a NOCO Genius ? Reason being it only needs to keep the battery charged for the LED lights. It would also then allow me to spend the budget on the best Inverter, and solar would eventually be what keeps the 12v battery charged in the future.
   
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2. How long can you run LED's on battery? I know this is loaded as there are tons of factors in play. But I'm wondering if I even need a power solution like the one mentioned above if I only plan to run 6 LED's that say 2W on the package. I'd really just need them to last the weekend until I drive the rig home.
   
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   Thanks!

I use a a small NOCO Genius. I can either charge car batteries, small SLA or small AGMs. Good to have around, IMO!

I wonder if I need something like this would suffice, or if I'd need something like this.

Are you going to be using them in parallel for 12v or series for 24 volt? If your end goal is 70ah of 12v you can just connect the charger to the batteries positive and negative respectively with the two batteries still connected together.
If you dont plan on draining the batteries much or don't mind longer charging times something like
this will work just fine. If you want faster charging time or plan on draining more amps out of the batteries then I would buy one of the higher amperage charger offered in the link.